diff --git a/IPython/testing/decorators.py b/IPython/testing/decorators.py
index a15e1b3..fca1b15 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/decorators.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/decorators.py
@@ -55,9 +55,6 @@ import unittest
 # This is Michele Simionato's decorator module, kept verbatim.
 from IPython.external.decorator import decorator, update_wrapper
 
-# Our own modules
-import nosepatch  # monkeypatch nose
-
 # We already have python3-compliant code for parametric tests
 if sys.version[0]=='2':
     from _paramtestpy2 import parametric, ParametricTestCase
diff --git a/IPython/testing/iptest.py b/IPython/testing/iptest.py
index 84a7984..e4bc780 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/iptest.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/iptest.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 # Module imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+# Stdlib
 import os
 import os.path as path
 import signal
@@ -31,9 +32,16 @@ import tempfile
 import time
 import warnings
 
+# Note: monkeypatch!
+# We need to monkeypatch a small problem in nose itself first, before importing
+# it for actual use.  This should get into nose upstream, but its release cycle
+# is slow and we need it for our parametric tests to work correctly.
+from . import nosepatch
+# Now, proceed to import nose itself
 import nose.plugins.builtin
 from nose.core import TestProgram
 
+# Our own imports
 from IPython.utils import genutils
 from IPython.utils.platutils import find_cmd, FindCmdError
 from . import globalipapp
diff --git a/IPython/testing/ipunittest.py b/IPython/testing/ipunittest.py
index 4380dbf..fe57e4e 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/ipunittest.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/ipunittest.py
@@ -46,9 +46,6 @@ try:
 except:
     from ._doctest26 import TestResults
 
-# Our own, a nose monkeypatch
-from . import nosepatch
-
 # We already have python3-compliant code for parametric tests
 if sys.version[0]=='2':
     from ._paramtestpy2 import ParametricTestCase
diff --git a/IPython/testing/tools.py b/IPython/testing/tools.py
index 5b0d1e0..49c0126 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/tools.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/tools.py
@@ -31,7 +31,14 @@ import re
 import sys
 import tempfile
 
-import nose.tools as nt
+try:
+    # These tools are used by parts of the runtime, so we make the nose
+    # dependency optional at this point.  Nose is a hard dependency to run the
+    # test suite, but NOT to use ipython itself.
+    import nose.tools as nt
+    has_nose = True
+except ImportError:
+    has_nose = False
 
 from IPython.utils import genutils, platutils
 
@@ -47,8 +54,9 @@ def %(name)s(*a,**kw):
     return nt.%(name)s(*a,**kw)
 """
 
-for _x in [a for a in dir(nt) if a.startswith('assert')]:
-    exec _tpl % dict(name=_x)
+if has_nose:
+    for _x in [a for a in dir(nt) if a.startswith('assert')]:
+        exec _tpl % dict(name=_x)
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Functions and classes
@@ -228,6 +236,8 @@ def ipexec_validate(fname, expected_out, expected_err=None,
     None
     """
 
+    import nose.tools as nt
+    
     out, err = ipexec(fname)
     nt.assert_equals(out.strip(), expected_out.strip())
     if expected_err: